Nuremberg Airport suspends all flights as fighter jets escort passenger plane amid ‘in-flight emergency’

All flight operations at Nuremberg Airport in Germany have been temporarily halted today following reports of an “in-flight emergency”.

The airport confirmed the suspension in a statement published on its official website, but provided no details about the circumstances surrounding the incident.

According to German newspaper Bild, a police source said authorities were considering the possibility of an emergency involving an aircraft in flight.

An airport spokesman said Eurofighter jets escorted the plane arriving from the Greek island before it landed.

The airport said: “Due to an aviation emergency, flight operations have currently been suspended. Further information will follow.”

Reports indicate a possible drone sighting, with police launching an investigation into the incident.

Regional police said three pilots separately reported seeing an unidentified object, believed to have been a drone, while landing or taking off between 2am and 4am local time.

The reports prompted the airport’s border police inspectorate to investigate and led to temporary interruptions to air traffic.

Officers deployed a helicopter in an attempt to locate the object, but were unable to confirm its existence.

Police also cordoned off the airport, according to German newspaper Rheinische Post.

In a statement, regional police described the incident as an “uncertain air emergency”, adding that the aircraft involved had since landed safely in Nuremberg.

German media reported that police intervened shortly before a flight from the Greek island of Corfu was due to land.

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Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 recorded the aircraft touching down at 12.16pm, approximately one minute later than scheduled.

Pictures from the ground show police officers blocking access to the Airport, which remains cordoned off.

The latest sighting follows a similar incident at Leipzig Airport in Germany around two months ago, when a drone equipped with an explosive device was discovered.

Flights were temporarily suspended as security teams deployed a specialist robot to examine a suspicious object close to the airport’s southern runway.

At the time, Germany’s interior minister described the incident as an example of a new form of “hybrid attack”, involving drones carrying explosives.

German authorities attributed the earlier incident to Russia. However, it remains unclear who was responsible for the latest sighting, or whether the two incidents are connected.